Bagel Baron Teases West Orange With Long-Awaited Restaurant

WEST ORANGE, NJ — You know you’ve hit on something special when you can whip an entire town into a frenzy over your bagels… and your restaurant isn’t even open.

West Orange’s well-known bagel baron, Jarrett Seltzer, confirmed to Patch that his new eatery, Bagels By Jarrett, will be holding its official grand opening on Saturday, Feb. 29. Located at 451 Mount Pleasant Avenue, the “boutique bagelry” will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. that day.

“There are no exact other open hours listed,” Seltzer said. “We continue to open and close in order to perfect the customer experience and keep up with demand.”

Learn more about this local business.

It’s been an interesting month for Seltzer, 37, of West Orange, who held a soft opening for his new eatery last weekend. Challenges have included finding the right employees and taking his best educated guesses about how much food to make at a time.

But so far, the risk has been worth the reward, he says.

“What a journey this has been,” Seltzer wrote on a Friday social media post. “Thank you to everyone who has supported me during this trek. None of this would have happened without knowing that I had customers coming in all of you. I can’t believe it’s here.”

Local foodies have been clamoring to get their hands on some of Seltzer’s idiosyncratic bagels ever since word of their existence began spreading on social media. Over the past year, Seltzer has been pushing his experimental approach to marketing, holding spontaneous giveaway events and popup appearances throughout the West Orange and Livingston area.

Since first discovering his bagel-making talent, Seltzer has come and gone like a spring zephyr, never setting a permanent foot down, despite desperate pleas from his growing fan base.

Until now.

THE ORIGIN STORY

Here’s the tongue-in-cheek origin story of Seltzer’s new eatery, according to its Facebook page.

“Bagels by Jarrett is a boutique bagelry with a backstory. It’s a story about a man who developed his own bagel recipe and decided to share them with neighbors when he had extras. The news of the elusive ‘Jarrett bagel’ spread like wildfire and the town demanded a place to buy them. What makes them so special? Jarrett is a man of excess, and his bagels don’t escape that. One bake is not enough; he double bakes. A few seeds will not do; he seeds both sides until it’s coated through and through. But Jarrett is also a man of heart, and food is always 100% better when it’s made with love, so you’d better believe that the passion is infused throughout the bagel. Or is that the good ole West Orange water? Maybe it’s both.”

WHAT TO ORDER

Patch asked Seltzer what some of his customers’ – and his own – favorite culinary creations have been so far. Here’s what he said:

“The bruschetta bagel got a lot of great reviews. It’s a bagel with our roasted garlic and shallot cream cheese where we add tomato, red onion, basil and balsamic glaze. It’s a nice lunch sandwich. Our coffee (we use Irving Farm, which is based in NYC) also got really good reviews. The chicken salad has been the biggest thing we’ve seen people talking about besides the bagels themselves.”

FROM THEIR OWN MOUTHS

People lucky enough to get their hands on one of Seltzer’s bagels haven’t been shy about offering their opinions. Seen online:

• “Worth the wait. My husband had an everything bagel and said he never had a better bagel. Rates it a 10. And he is from Brooklyn!”
• “Absolutely lived up to the hype. Great bagels, spreads, coffee, and people. Jarrett and his army have done a phenomenal job and a great service to all those in and around West Orange.”
• “Jarrett is a man of passion as well as a man of heart. It’s so true that when anything is done with love it’s always better. Trust me when I tell you Jarrett is in this because he loves what he’s doing and he wants his customers to love it as well.”
• “It only took one bite for me to know I had found the holy grail of gluten free bagels. Jarrett Seltzer is a master at his craft. I was halfway through my second side of my bagel before I realized it wasn’t toasted. In the 19 years I’ve been GF, this is the first time I enjoyed a bread of any kind in its natural state. Jarrett, I’m not worthy.”

However, it’s reviews like this one from May 2019 that are fueling the bagel buzz in West Orange:

“This unicorn of an everything bagel with veggie cream cheese was generously given to me by Jarrett from Bagels By Jarrett. Diving face first into the bagel and snarfing it down like a wild animal seemed inevitable but I resisted. Each bite was thoughtfully consumed and pondered. A few noteworthy characteristics of this beautiful bagel: 1- Completely homemade by Jarrett, 2- There's AMPLE everything goodness with each bite; both sides are covered in deliciousness, 3- The cream cheese if full of veggies, 4- The balance of flavors and the ratio of cream cheese to bagel are perfection! I waited for months to get this creature and the wait was well worth it. The worst part is waiting for Jarrett to open his bagel shop. Thank you Bagels By Jarrett for making my day!”

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